This Will Be Our Year
by Smart Alex
Summary: Post-02, multiple pairings, ongoing. The Digidestined, after the battle. Some get their happy endings, others don't. Every year is another chance.
1. Moving On: Tai and Mimi, 2003

**Moving On**

Tai stumbles on his way out of yet another store, again, and only his soccer skills keep him from falling flat on his face. Years of obstacle course training did him good.

"Taiiii," Mimi shrills. "Are you coming, or what?"

"Yes, your highness," he mumbles sarcastically, but he picks up the shopping bags he's accumulated with her and jogs to catch up.

"You should know what it's like to go shopping with me by now," Mimi says, lightly scolding. Today her hair is all short brown curls. Of course she can carry nothing heavier than her enormous designer purse, the brat.

"You're such a brat," Tai decides to tell her. "These are heavy, Mimi! Did you need to buy stuff the weight of rocks?"

She sticks out her tongue. "Shouldn't have offered to carry them," she snipes back.

They walk through Aqua City, and occasionally Tai has to wait for Mimi to ooh and aah over a storefront window, just like he's been doing for the past two hours. He had never realized how big a simple shopping district could be.

Finally, Mimi decides she wants ice cream, and they sit outside a girly pink cafe to eat expensive vanilla cones, her many new purchases surrounding them in piles like small mountains.

"So, are you over Sora yet?" she asks, delicately licking the dripping ice cream off the side of her cone.

Tai nearly chokes. "_What_?"

She sniffs. "I didn't think so."

"Mimi, what kind of a question is that?" Tai finally manages to say, around the mushy ice cream and cone that feels like it's lodged itself in his throat.

"You had plenty of time to tell her how you felt before, you know," Mimi continues, plainly ignoring him. "I think you should just move on."

"I have no problems with moving on, thanks," Tai protests, scowling. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

Mimi gives her cone another delicate lick. "Because you've been holing yourself up and not talking to anyone about anything that doesn't involve the Digital World for the past few months. That's what Izzy told me, and you know he's always right," she says. The brat. She knew he was going to protest, because she hadn't exactly been around to see anything for herself.

"So I want some time to myself," Tai says. "Big deal. It doesn't mean I'm sulking."

"You_ so_ are," Mimi retorts, her dignified air finally gone. She bites off half her cone in one bite.

"Why are you so concerned about this, anyway?" he demands, biting the top off of his own dripping cone.

"Did you know that I used to have the biggest crush ever on Joe?" she announces. "Don't think I don't know how awkward to have your group dynamics change."

"Dynamics?" Tai repeats. "That's a pretty big word for you, Meem." Then it hits. "Wait, Joe? Are you serious?"

"We were supposed to go to cram school together over spring break that one year Diaboromon attacked," Mimi explains. "I called in sick so that I could go to Hawaii, and while I was gone he sent me this big box of chocolates with a note saying Get Well Soon. By the time we got home it was all melted, of course, but it was terribly sweet."

"So... Joe liked you, too?" Tai says dubiously.

"Nah," Mimi sighs. "Once he found out I'd skipped cram school to go on vacation, he was totally disappointed. And then I moved, so I had to give up on him."

Tai gulps down the rest of his ice cream cone to shake off the feeling that he's been warped into some sort of chick flick. His hands are sticky with vanilla goop. Across from him, Mimi is the picture of primness, her legs crossed, gently leaning her elbows on the table. She also looks a lot like his cat.

"I already kind of knew Matt liked her," Tai finally snaps. "Is that what you're waiting to hear?"

"Oh, my," Mimi says, eyes wide.

"I knew it wasn't going to work out," he says harshly, scowing down at his sticky hands, clenched into fists. "And I didn't want to hurt Matt. It was dumb. I was dumb. Do we really have to talk about it?"

"Yes," Mimi says bluntly. "It's unhealthy to keep stuff like that inside."

She stands up abruptly and sticks her half-eaten ice cream cone in his face. "I can't eat another bite!" she says plaintively. "You finish it. Let's move on."

Tai stares at her. He's not quite angry, more like baffled. "Mimi, are you serious?"

"I _said_, let's _move_," Mimi says, frowning until he finally takes her cone. She scoops up a couple of the smaller bags with her free hand and waits for him to get up. "Shopping is good therapy!" she adds, flouncing away to the entrance.

"Whatever," he yells after her, picking up the rest of her bags.

On second thought, he throws away the cone.

-

* * *

**author's notes: **these were written in honour of Odaiba Memorial Day (so of course I start with 02). The kids end up in all these tangled relationships by the end of 02, it seems, so these are written to confront some of them. I guess this could be Michi, but I honestly wrote it from more of a friendship angle. I hope you enjoy the next few parts!


	2. Patience: Ken and Yolei, 2004

**Patience  
**

It takes them two years of tiptoeing around each other, quiet blushes and not-quite holding hands before Yolei finally loses her patience.

It happens when Ken walks her home one night after the DigiDestined's meeting (today's topic: how to deal with the press, part three). Their conversation quickly dies down, and he doesn't wonder when Wormmon and Hawkmon quickly go ahead. Their hands brush, sparks fly; they do nothing.

Yolei throws her hands in the air and makes a frustrated noise. "Oh, this is stupid!" she yells to the sky.

Before Ken can try to quiet her, she pivots and kisses him smack on the mouth, wetly and awkwardly. To be fair, it's more like she attacked him, because their noses bump on the way and her glasses are pushed much higher up on her face than she prefers them to be. He has no idea what to do with his mouth or his hands and his heart seems to have leapt up to his throat.

She pulls away, he pulls away. They don't look at each other. Their Digimon are nowhere in sight.

"Um," he says finally. His ears are burning. How embarassing.

"That was terrible," Yolei moans, burying her own red face in her hands. "I'm sorry. I've never kissed anyone before. I meant to try before this, so that I would know what to do, but I didn't. Please don't hate me forever, Ken?" she adds, her voice muffled.

"Of course not!" he exclaims, and a whole part of him wants to jump with joy when Yolei peeks through her hands at him, even though the other part feels like an ostrich without a sandpit. "I could never hate you," he says. "You know that."

"But I pretty much just assaulted you," she says hesitantly. "I think."

"I'm just glad you didn't kiss anyone else before me," he blurts out.

Yolei's face brightens, even though she's still blushing. "Really?"

He still feels like an ostrich, but he reaches out for her hand and laces his fingers through hers. "Really."

They start walking again, even though they're both still blushing, and he doesn't let go of her hand until they reach her apartment building. Their Digimon are still nowhere to be seen, the traitors.

"Are you really not mad about me, you know," Yolei starts. "_That_."

Ken shakes his head no and manages a small smile. "Just give me a warning next time, okay?"

Yolei grins. "Okay!"

Next thing he knows he has an armful of Yolei, who is hugging him with all her might, and he can see Hawkmon and Wormmon watching them from inside, and he sort of manages to hug her back before she lets go and escapes inside.

-

* * *

**author's notes: **my first Digimon fic ever was Kenyako. I still have an enormous soft spot for them.


	3. Reality Check: TK and Kari, 2007

**Reality Check  
**

They're halfway through high school by the time they figure it out.

Kari's in Odaiba, T.K.'s moved to wherever his mom needs to work. He'd like to think that his mom and dad are well along the road to patching up their rocky relationship, since the only real obstacles are their busy careers, but it still hasn't gotten them back together in the same town.

So he goes to high school in the countryside as his mom settles into being a regional newspaper editor, he plays basketball on the varsity team, and he's asked to explain again and again what Patamon is. In his spare time, he writes.

He and Kari talk on the phone every night. She tells him about Odaiba, about the ugly uniforms and the local gossip, about Davis' experimental noodle recipes. She mentions how the newer DigiDestined are taking their new responsibilities, people like Yolei's siblings who never expected anything that interesting in their lives.

They meet up in the Digital World when the situation calls for it, and they always end up standing next to each other. They finish each other's sentences. They don't make eye contact.

They don't date. They don't date other people, they don't date each other.

It's not that they don't get along, or that they feel like they're siblings. T.K. knows Kari's one of the only people who understands the threat darkness really has, who understands there's more to evil than just creepy laughs and goofy henchmen. Kari's trusted him implicitly since they were eight. She loves him, he knows. He loves her back.

It's not that they don't want to, it's that they're too _close_ to date. They know each other's strengths, weaknesses, dreams. They've been in each other's head a little too much. And hovering over them was that one kiss they don't talk about, just because they wanted to try, and they couldn't imagine a first with anyone else; that one kiss that scared both of them because they didn't want to let go of each other after that. It was too intense, whether it was their crests working together or just them.

They're sixteen by the time they figure out that the only thing they can do is break each other's heart.

Slowly, the phone calls stop. By the time T.K. moves back to Odaiba, he's become more and more involved with his writing. His parents finally get back together. Kari spends more and more time away from their little group, making friends with people who haven't yet been required to save the world.

T.K. hopes. It's what he's good at. He hopes that she'll be happy. He hopes he'll forget about all the could have beens, because he was too scared of finding a soulmate, too young to think about that. He writes their happy ending: By the time they graduate, they're still friends, and Kari even hugs him at graduation. He hugs back, and pushes her away just as Gatomon leaps onto her partner and Patamon lands on his head, and they can laugh like they did when they were little and didn't know any better.

-

* * *

**author's notes:** I was a huge Takari fan back in the day, too (and Daikari, not quite sure how that worked out) and I was crushed when they weren't together 4ever. I always wanted to explore why that was, but of course this mean angsting and things.


	4. Flashback: Matt and Sora, 2001

**Flashback**

The day before Matt starts seventh grade, his father walks in on him taking a bath. On one hand, it's kind of embarrassing, since he's been taking baths by himself since his parents divorced, but on the other hand, he kind of understands his dad's thinking. Ever since his dad's promotion, they haven't had time to talk much, so if his bath time's the only time his dad can wish him good luck with junior high, that's okay, he guesses.

"So you're starting junior high tomorrow, huh?" his dad says, sitting down on the closed toilet lid. "Got everything you need?"

"Yeah," Matt says nonchalantly, sinking lower in the water.

Without the hair gel, his hair straggles down to his shoulders and over his eyes. It's a little like being a rock star, and sometimes he practices an air guitar in front of the bathroom mirror, just to be silly.

"You need a haircut," his dad says. It isn't a suggestion, but Matt decides to interpret it as one, just in case.

"Nah," he says, dismissively. "It's fine."

"My old man cut my hair when I started junior high," his dad reminisces. "He shaved it right down. I looked like a monkey. No one was ever allowed to have hair that long. Or high," he adds, preventing Matt from justifying his spiky style.

Suddenly, Matt has a bad, bad feeling.

"Why don't you let me trim it for you?" his dad offers, absentmindedly searching in his shirt pocket for the packet of cigarettes that he left on the kitchen table.

"It's _fine_," Matt says, flattening his hair with more water.

"I could use my clippers," his dad says thoughtfully, looking down at his pocket to verify that there are, in fact, no cigarettes hiding therein.

"Dad," he says, worriedly. "You really don't need to."

His dad gets up, and waves his hand, waving away all Matt's objections. "Hurry up with your bath, son, and I'll meet you in the kitchen," he throws over his shoulder, shuffling out of the bathroom.

Matt sinks underneath the water. This isn't good.

-

"Yo!" Tai yells, running up to him through the sea of green uniforms that are making their nervous way to junior high for the first time. It is eight in the morning and his regulation tie is already hanging sloppily around his neck, Matt notes.

Tai stares at him. "Man, you look like a porcupine," he finally says, grinning.

"Shut up," he grumbles, ducking his head.

Tai's grin grows wider. "I bet your head's gonna be really cold for a while, huh?"

"Shut _up_," he repeats, more annoyed.

"Tai, stop being such a jerk," Sora's familiar voice orders from behind them. Reluctantly, Tai turns to face her. Matt's heart suddenly swells with gratitude towards her, and he turns around in time to see her scolding Tai more.

"You shouldn't make fun of other people's hair," she tells him. "I bet you didn't even brush yours this morning!"

Tai ignores the jibe, instead gaping at her. Matt can't help staring himself, but at least he tries not to be so obvious about it.

Sora's hair is actually visible. Her bangs are even pulled out of her eyes and pinned back with a hair pin.

"You changed your style too," Tai says finally. Sora grants him an aggravated look.

"What, did you think I'd be able to wear a hat with this uniform?" she says, motioning to the skirt.

Unlike the other girls around them, her skirt is strictly uniform length and hangs exactly at the knees, instead of being hitched above it. Finally, Matt clears his throat, and both he and Tai quickly look away.

Sora rolls her eyes. "Come on, guys."

It's not like he hasn't noticed girls before, Matt thinks. It's just that he hasn't really noticed _Sora_ before. Mimi always wore dresses, so there wasn't much to notice. But Sora, tomboy that she was, almost didn't seem to fit the demure schoolgirl look.

"I wonder what classes we'll be in?" Tai says, pulling his goggles down to hang around his neck as they troop into the courtyard. "Wouldn't it be awesome if we were all together?"

He runs off to check the class listing, weaving his way through the excited crowd to find out where they'll be spending the next year, leaving Matt with Sora.

"So, what did happen to your hair?" Sora says finally, looking over at him.

"My dad happened," he grumbles, reaching up to touch the short ends. It isn't quite a buzz cut, but it's a little bit too close for his liking.

"Well, it isn't that bad," Sora says, giving him a small smile. "Really."

Suddenly, Matt has a million butterflies in his stomach, which is weird, because it's Sora, and he's known her forever. He manages some sort of flustered response, but has no idea what he just said or why he'd have to be flustered in the first place. It isn't remotely cool.

Tai runs back to them, whooping excitedly. "Hey, guys, we _are_ all in the same class!" He grabs Matt's arm, then Sora's, to pull them along. "Come on, let's go!"

-

* * *

**author's notes: **this is slightly longer than usual, since this story is more of a prequel -- it's part of my personal Sorato canon that I will probably never get around to writing. it always kind of irked me that Sora and Matt started dating so quickly, so I figured there had to be some sort of backstory.


End file.
